ANIMAL REPRODUCTIONS. 433 
learned by experience. Thus the utmoft diforder 
‘enfued in the eye, and the chryftalline lens ftart- 
éd out on my nail. ‘This is a beautiful object ; 
no larger than a millet feed, and quite tranfpa- 
rent. I thought that I beheld one of the fpheri- 
cal lenfes with which Leeuwenhoeck difcovered 
fo many wonders. But contact of the air foon 
tarnifhed the minute lens; it dried and becamie 
disfigured. 
AC deep bloody wound in the focket of the eye 
was the confequence of this cruel operation. 
And the reader will not be furprifed if I hardly 
expected any thing from it, and that the newt 
would probably remain blind for ever. How 
great was my.aftonifhment, therefore, when, on 
the thirty-firft of May 1780, I faw a new eye 
formed: by nature. ‘The iris and cornea were al- 
ready well fhaped, but the latter wanted its pecu- 
liar tranfparency, which is very confiderable in 
thefe animals. Impatience to arrive at the moft 
important part of the prodigy has induced me to 
omit the progrefs of it; and obferve that na- 
ture certainly began with clofing the wound. 
The eye was completely repaired 1 Septem. 
ber. ‘The cornea was nearly as tranfparent as 
that of the other eye, with which it was fre- 
quently compared. The iris had alfo acquired 
the yellow gilded colour, which chara€terifes this 
fpecies of newt. In fhort, the cye was fo per- 
Vou. Il. Ee fedtly 
